Ballon-mobile

Contrary to what you might have in mind, this is not a vehicle made of balloons. Oddly enough it is a baby knitting project! During my 2 ways post due down time, in an attempt to maintain my sanity I came up with a pattern to create a mobile out of knitted balloons. This is a super quick and easy project

TOOLS

size US 2 DPN's
embroidery hoop
4 colors of sport weight yarn
poly stuffing

BALLOON PATTERN

Cast on 9 stitches using the long tail method and making sure to leave at least a 6" tail
Join stitches to knit in a round (add a stitch marker)
R1: K
R2: K1, K2tog to end of row
R3: K2tog
R4: K1, M1 (add a maker after each newly created stitch)
R5-12: K until makers and M1 at each stitch marker
You should have a total of 30 stitches at this point
R13: K
R14-23: K until markers and M1 at each stitch marker
You should have a total of 60 stitches at this point
R24-29: K
R30-33: K to markers and K2 tog
R34: Knit 3, K2tog (add maker)
R35- end K until you have 2 stitches left before your marker and K2tog
Once you are down to 3 stitches cut a long tail of yarn and run it through your stitches.
Use stuffing to fill the balloon. (I suggest using small bits of stuffing and shaping the balloon throughout the process to make sure it's nice and round)
Once the balloon is filled, pull the yarn tight to close up the hole.

MOBILE ASSEMBLY

Once you have created 4 balloons, drape them evenly spaced around the inside ring of your embroidery hoop making sure that each balloon is hanging at the desired length. (if you are having trouble you can use a small piece of tape to secure each balloon string where you want it). Place the outside ring onto the hoop and close it up. Take all four balloon tails and tie them together so that the hoop hangs level. Cut off your excess and you're all set to hang your new mobile!

DIY Wee Ones TeePee

We have arrived at the Christmas season yet again (omg omg my FAVORITE!). In my search for gifts for my difficult to please nephew I ran across these adorable teepees at The Land of Nod (known for their adorable items and high prices)

Land of Nod A TeePee to call you own

My sister's family is very into Native American culture and this just seemed like a perfect fit!  As I am sure you have guessed by now, this lead to me deciding that I would have to make my own. My husband suggested I use a natural canvas and include paints so they could decorate it themselves, which of course is the best idea ever!

Total cost of the project was about $60 (not including paints) so it's still a chunk of change but well worth it for such a unique and meaningful gift (not to mention it certainly beats the $150 price tag you'd pay to buy a similar gift).


So what will it take to make your own Wee One's Teepee? Just check out my steps below for this simple sewing project.

Materials:
4 - 1" diameter 6 foot long dowels. I found some at Lowes.
3 1/2 yards of field color 60" bolt canvas for the panels (with matching thread)
1 1/2 yards of accent color 60" bolt canvas for the dowel corners (with matching thread)
Twine and 2 toggle buttons for the door

*for the cleanest results, always iron your edges before cutting and sewing*

Step one is to cut out the canvas fabric to the dimensions shown below. I created a paper stencil to help ensure all my pieces were equal sizes.

Once you everything is cut out, you should have pieces as shown below, I numbered them out here for reference.

1. The first step is to create your door out of your two piece style 1's. Lay them on top of one another facing each other so all the edges line up and sew two inches from the edge 2' down from the top, leaving a 3' opening. Fold back the 2" pieces and top stitch each side.

2. Hem the top and bottom of each of your panels, two inches on the bottom and one inch on the top. Due to the thickness of the fabric I did not double fold my fabrics before hemming them because my sewing machine was struggling to punch threw that many layers of the canvas. If you have a high powered machine, you may not have that problem.

3. Hem the top pole sleeves (accent color canvas). Just 1/4" on the top. Then fold your sleeves in half so the raw edge of the hem is on the outside (what will be inside out) and sew the bottom edge of the sleeve together. Flip the sleeves right side out so both raw edges are on the inside and sew closed the sleeves leaving the raw edge on the outside (don't worry all the raw edges will end up on the inside of the teepee). Note: make sure you leave PLENTY of room for your dowels to slide into the sleeves! You don't to struggle to slide your dowels into their sleeves (or even worse not have them fit at all).

Bottom edge of Dowel Sleeve

Top opening of Dowel Sleeve

4. Piece everything together making lining up your raw edges making sure they are all on what will be the inside of the tent.

Pinning all the raw edges to sew together each piece.

Pinning and Sewing all the pieces together

5. Once all the pieces are put together, you can cut off any excess on the inside seams of the tent. Using a scrap piece of fabric either from your field fabric or accent (whichever you have scrap of) to create a strap to tie the dowels together at the top so your teepee doesn't sag. If you don't feel like bothering with making your own strap or if you don't have enough scrap, you can always use twine or something else to tie off the poles.

6. sew on your toggle buttons and loops (with the raw ends of the twine on the inside of the teepee doors).

7. Insert your dowels into the sleeves and tie off the top and you're done!

All in all this project was probably less than a 10 hour investment and I am not a master seamstress so someone with more experience could probably do a much cleaner and faster job than I did. I would like to give the poles a couple of coats of oil but that is completely optional since this is intended as mostly an indoor fort.

I hope you and your little ones enjoy your very own teepee forts!

The Knits of Others

I certainly can appreciate the hard work of my fellow knitting pattern makers and I thought I'd show off a couple pieces that I knit this year based on the the patterns of others.

Pattern #1: Neon Ski Bonnet by Lacey Volk. 

This pattern was FREE on ravelry.  Can you beleive it? It's adorable. I did not do as instructed and block my pieces so I ended up blocking the whole thing at the end giving it a weird little peak because I blocked it folded in half. I think it will wear out with some time but just another reminder to follow instructions!

Need I say more?

Pattern #2: Northman Mittens By David Sholtz

Okay this pattern isn't free but i just couldn't get over it and I have been able to adapt the pattern into a variety of other items including ear muffs and baby mitts (sadly none of which I photographed before giving away). I made the mittens last year for my sister and liked them so well that I had to make a pair for myself. They are SO warm and cozy. Perfect for the cold winter that we are being promised this year.

Warning: I have found that they run very small (granted I didn't block them surprise surprise).

I love the fact that they are lined with the surprise cranberry color!


What are some of your favorite knitting patterns?

Michael Scarf

My Christmas knitting exploits are well on their way and among them is the Michael scarf.
 

Materials:

Berroco Ultra Alpaca Chunky, 6 skeins (750 yards)

shown in color 7206 Light Gray

1 set US #11 Needles (As you can see, I used a magic loop and just knit back and forth on it)

Cabling needle

Cast on 40 stitches using your preferred cast on method (I prefer the long tail method).
To create the ripping K2, P2 for 16 rows.

After 16 rows (or once you have the ribbing to the desired length finishing at an even row), begin pattern as shown below:

Round 1   [fs]: P1, K6, P1, K4, P1, K7, P1, K7, P1, K4, P1, K6, P1
Round 2   [bs]: K1, P6, K1, P4, K1, P6, K1, P1, K1, P6, K1, P4, K1, P6, K1
Round 3   [fs]: P1, C6F, P6, K5, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K5, P6, C6B, P1
Round 4   [bs]: K1, P6, K6, P4, K1, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K1, P4, K6, P6, K1
Round 5   [fs]: P1, K6, P1, K4, P1, K3, P1, K1, P1, K3, P1, K1, P1, K3, P1, K4, P1, K6, P1
Round 6   [bs]: K1, P6, K1, K1, P4, K1, P2, K1, P1, K1, P5, K1, P1, K1, P2, K1, P4, K1, P6, K1
Round 7   [fs]: P1, K6, P6, K1, P1, K1 P1, K7, P1, K1, P1, K1, P6, K6, P1
Round 8   [bs]: K1, P6, K6, P2, K1, P1, K1, P5, K1, P1, K1, P2, K6, P6, K1
Round 9   [fs]: P1, C6F, P1, K4, P1, K3, P1, K1, P1, K3, P1, K1, P1, K3, P1, K4, P1, C6B, P1
Round 10 [bs]: K1, P6, K1, P4, K1, P4, K1, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K1, P4, K1, P4, K1, P6, K1
Round 11 [fs]: P1, K6, P6, K5, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K5, P6, K6, P1
Round 12 [bs]: K1, P6, K6, P6, K1, P1, K1, P6, K6, P6, K1 

Repeat rounds 1-12 until scarf is the desired length. K2, P2 for 16 rows (or an equivalent number of rows to what you did in the beginning) and cast off loosely.

Be sure to block the scarf or it will not lie flat.

It's Christmas!

Did I mention that I love Christmas?!

It's almost unhealthy... ALMOST. So to celebrate I plan to follow up the Bubble Wreath with Christmas crafts and tutorials for the next three weeks leading up to Christmas.

So starting next week, here are some tid-bits I hope to have for you in the coming weeks:

1. Tips for a beautiful Christmas Tree

2. DIY Advent wreath

3. How to wrap a present

What is your favorite Christmas craft?

Blazer Bling

I have some great knitting projects that I am SO excited to share but they are Christmas presents so unfortunately I am going to have to wait until after the new year to post them. In the mean time, here is a little crafty project I came up with a little while back....

For months I have been eying those fancy blazers with the snazzy sleeve lining that you can show off by folding over the cuffs. I looked around but just couldn't find what I was looking for in my price range. So, on a whim, I decided to update one of my old blazers and satiate my need for a fun cuff.

I couldn't find the striped fabric that I was looking for so I opted for some zebra print and gold buttons....

Before:

 After:

I brought the blazer with me to the fabric store so I could find properly sized buttons and switch them out (without having to make any changes to the button holes). Then I just sewed the zebra print into the sleeves (on top the the existing lining) and VOILA! In just a couple hours, a fresh look for an old blazer.

Spring Sweater (Part 2)

As promised...here is my finished sweater and just in time for winter....

I am not entirely happy with the finished product. In a perfect world I would tear out the top half and make it wider so I could have the droopy sleeves that I had envisioned for the sweater and I also WILL need to re-knit the neck as the cast off was waaaay too tight. In the mean time though, here is a good look at my first sweater attempt and as well as a lesson in why patterns might not be such a bad idea after all....

Yarn Used: Mission Falls 136 Merino Superwash
Color: 009 (Red) & 019 (Green)

I have completely lost track of the number of skeins used... maybe 10 at 136 yards each?

The good news is the holiday season is rolling around again and I am confident that I will do much better documentation of my holiday knit gifts than I did last year.(although some of them may not make their debut on this blog until after the new years for obvious reasons)  I have also come up with a new pattern for one project that I am very pleased with so far!

Some Wedding Bits

A little over a year ago I had the blessing of marrying my wonderful husband. The wedding planning unleashed a hayday of crafting projects. While it proved to be a lot of work, it made my "special" day that much more personal.

One of my first projects was to make earrings and hair clips for my bridesmaids. I initially bought feather pads to make the clips but found that they were too large so I just made my own from individual feathers and a decorative brad.

No, I didn't make the shoes...or the flowers, but I did glue the flowers onto the shoes. I know, it's not much of a craft but those little touches made the wedding mine.

I did use use a purchased feather pad for my hair piece and pinned a silver broach with blue stones that was my great grandmothers onto it. I made the veil which was initially supposed to go over my head and face but once my hair was done, I found that the veil did not fit so my fantastic bridesmaids ad libbed what you see here.

The centerpieces were a practice in price control. I uses candy dishes as the centerpieces and created bags with names on them for placecards tying the the centerpieces and gifts into one. The table numbers are canvas with ironed on numbers a silver grommet and twine tying them onto the vase.

I initially had a place to do a wire basket and hanger for these antique ball jars but found that my wire skills are not quite what I anticipated. Instead, I wired hooks around lip of the jar used the twine to hang it on tall shepherds hooks to with tulle between them to make a beautiful "altar" to get married in front of.


In addition to these, my husband and I also made the invitations which I will try add a picture of later.

All the wedding photos were provided by the fantastical talented Meg Fenton